The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). Frederick Whymper
authority132 says that it was by the Venetians against the Genoese, before 1330. Their use necessitated very material alterations in the structure of war-ships. The first port-holes are believed to have been contrived by a ship-builder at Brest, named Descharges, and their introduction took place in 1499. They were “circular holes, cut through the sides of the vessel, and so small as scarcely to admit of the guns being traversed in the smallest degree, or fired otherwise than straightforward.” Hitherto there had been no distinctions between the vessels used in commerce and in the king’s service; the former being constantly employed for the latter; but now we find the addition of another tier, and a general enlargement of the war-vessels. Still, when any emergency required, merchant vessels, not merely English, but Genoese, Venetian, and from the Hanse Towns, were constantly hired for warfare. So during peace the king’s ships were sometimes employed in trade, or freighted to merchants. Henry was very desirous of increasing and maintaining commercial relations with other countries. In the commission to one of his ambassadors, he says, “The earth being the common mother of all mankind, what can be more pleasant or more humane than to communicate a portion of all her productions to all her children by commerce?” Many special commercial treaties were made by him, and one concluded with the Archduke Philip after a dispute with him, which had put a stop to the trade with the Low Countries, was called the great commercial treaty (intercursus magnus). “It was framed with the greatest care to render the intercourse between the two countries permanent, and profitable to both.”
The first incident in the naval history of the next reign, that of Henry VIII., grew out of an event which had occurred long before. A Portuguese squadron had, in the year 1476, seized a Scottish ship, laden with a rich cargo, and commanded by John Barton. Letters of marque were granted him, which he had not, apparently, used to any great advantage, for they were renewed to his three sons thirty years afterwards. The Bartons were not content with repaying themselves for their loss, but found the Portuguese captures so profitable that they became confirmed pirates, “and when they felt their own strength, they seem, with little scruple, to have considered ships of any nation as their fair prize.” Complaints were lodged before Henry, but were almost ignored, “till the Earl of Surrey, then Treasurer and Marshal of England, declared at the council board, that while he had an estate that could furnish out a ship, or a son that was capable of commanding one, the narrow seas should not be so infested.” Two ships, commanded by his two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir Edward Howard, were made ready, with the king’s knowledge and consent. The two brothers put to sea, but were separated by stress of weather; the same happened to the two pirate ships—the Lion, under Sir Andrew Barton’s own command, and the Jenny Perwin, or Bark of Scotland. The strength of one of them is thus described in an old ballad, by a merchant, one of Sir Andrew’s victims, who is supposed to relate his tale to Sir Thomas Howard:—
“He is brass within, and steel without,
With beams on his top-castle strong;
And thirty pieces of ordnance
He carries on each side along;
And he hath a pinnace dearly dight,
St. Andrew’s Cross it is his guide;
His pinnace beareth nine score men,
And fifteen cannons on each side.
* * * * *
Were ye twenty ships, and he but one,
I swear by Kirk, and bower and hall,
He would overcome them every one
If once his beams they do down fall.”
But it was not so to be. Sir Thomas Howard, as he lay in the Downs, descried the former making for Scotland, and immediately gave chase, “and there was a sore battle. The Englishmen were fierce, and the Scots defended themselves manfully, and ever Andrew blew his whistle to encourage his men. Yet, for all that, Lord Howard and his men, by clean force, entered the main deck. There the English entered on all sides, and the Scots fought sore on the hatches; but, in conclusion, Andrew was taken, being so sore wounded that he died there, and then the remnant of the Scots were taken, with their ship.” Meantime Sir Edward Howard had encountered the other piratical ship, and though the Scots defended themselves like “hardy and well-stomached men,” succeeded in boarding it. The prizes were taken to Blackwall, and the prisoners, 150 in number, being all left alive, “so bloody had the action been,” were tried at Whitehall, before the Bishop of Winchester and a council. The bishop reminded them that “though there was peace between England and Scotland, they, contrary to that, as thieves and pirates, had robbed the king’s subjects within his streams, wherefore they had deserved to die by the law, and to be hanged at the low-water mark. Then, said the Scots, ‘We acknowledge our offence, and ask mercy, and not the law,’ and a priest, who was also a prisoner, said, ‘My lord, we appeal from the king’s justice to his mercy.’ Then the bishop asked if he were authorised by them to say thus, and they all cried, ‘Yea, yea!’ ‘Well, then,’ said the bishop, ‘you shall find the king’s mercy above his justice; for, where you were dead by the law, yet by his mercy he will revive you. You shall depart out of this realm within twenty days, on pain of death if ye be found after the twentieth day; and pray for the king.’ ” James subsequently required restitution from Henry, who answered “with brotherly salutation” that “it became not a prince to charge his confederate with breach of peace for doing justice upon a pirate and thief.” But there is no doubt that it was regarded as a national affair in Scotland, and helped to precipitate the war which speedily ensued.
THE DEFEAT OF SIR ANDREW BARTON.
Some of the edicts of the period seem strange enough to modern ears. The Scotch Parliament had passed an Act forbidding any ship freighted with staple goods to put to sea during the three winter months, under a penalty of five pounds. In 1493, a generation after the Act was passed, another provided that all burghs and towns should provide ships and busses, the least to be of twenty tons, fitted according to the means of the said places, provided with mariners, nets, and all necessary gear for taking “great fish and small.” The officers in every burgh were to make all the “stark idle men” within their bounds go on board these vessels, and serve them there for their wages, or, in case of refusal, banish them from their burgh. This was done with the idea of training a maritime force, but seems to have produced little effect. James IV. built a ship, however, which was, according to Scottish writers, larger and more powerfully armed than any then built in England or France. She was called the Great Michael, and “was of so great stature that she wasted all the oak forests of Fife, Falkland only excepted.” Southey reminds us that the Scots, like the Irish of the time, were constantly in feud with each other, and consequently destroyed their forests, to prevent the danger of ambuscades, and also to cut off the means of escape. Timber for this ship was brought from Norway, and though all the shipwrights in Scotland and many others from foreign countries were busily employed upon her, she took a year and a day to complete. The vessel is described as twelve score feet in length, and thirty-six in breadth of beam, within the walls, which were ten feet each thick, so that no cannon-ball could go through them. She had 300 mariners on board, six score gunners, and 1,000 men-of-war, including officers, “captains, skippers, and quarter-masters.” Sir Andrew Wood and Robert Barton were two of the chief officers. “This great ship cumbered Scotland to get her to sea. From the time that she was afloat, and her masts and sails complete, with anchors offering thereto, she was counted to the king to be thirty thousand pounds expense, by her artillery, which was very costly.” The Great Michael never did enough to have a single exploit recorded, nor was she unfortunate enough to meet a tragic ending.
In 1511 war was declared against France, and Henry caused many new ships to be made, repairing and rigging the old. After an action on the coast of Brittany, where both claimed the advantage, and where two of the largest vessels—the Cordelier, with 900 Frenchmen, and the Regent, with 700 Englishmen, were burned—nearly all on board perishing, Henry advised “a great ship to be made, such as was never before seen in England,” and which was named the Henri Grace de Dieu, or popularly the Great Harry.133 There are many ancient representations of this vessel, which is said to have cost £11,000, and to have taken 400 men four whole days